2015 Europeans Men's Free Skate, Jan. 30

CanadianSkaterGuy said:

LOL, World Rankings mean very little. Denis Ten is ranked #4, and I doubt people would say whatever he's doing now is working fine. Same with Lipnitskaia, who is ranked #2 in the world.

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Why? Denis won the Golden Spin of Zagreb and bronze at TEB. We don't know what he will do at 4CC. Julia's had a rough couple of months, but she still got 2 silver medals in the GP and made it to the final. And a rough patch doesn't negate everything they've accomplished previously, as long as it doesn't turn into a seasons-long "rough patch" (see: Florent Amodio). Every skater has ups and downs, but a pattern of general consistency and good results over 2-3 seasons must be worth something.

If you know of a more objective way to rank skaters, please share. I mean, you don't see mediocre skaters like Ivan Righini (sorry Ivan) near the top of the list for good reason. Maybe it doesn't mean much, but it surely means more than random GSer's personal biased opinions.

gallavich said:

Why? Denis won the Golden Spin of Zagreb and bronze at TEB. We don't know what he will do at 4CC. Julia's had a rough couple of months, but she still got 2 silver medals in the GP and made it to the final. And a rough patch doesn't negate everything they've accomplished previously, as long as it doesn't turn into a seasons-long "rough patch" (see: Florent Amodio). Every skater has ups and downs, but a pattern of general consistency and good results over 2-3 seasons must be worth something.

If you know of a more objective way to rank skaters, please share. I mean, you don't see mediocre skaters like Ivan Righini (sorry Ivan) near the top of the list for good reason. Maybe it doesn't mean much, but it surely means more than random GSer's personal biased opinions.

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The rankings aren't definitive barometers of who is better than who. Javier has won the past 3 Euro championships, won GP events, and a silver at the GPF, and the only reason Voronov is ranked higher (and by a measly 33 points) is because he competed in 4 senior Bs (Finlandia/Golden Spin x2/Nebelhorn) in the past two seasons, whereas Fernandez hasn't competed in any since Finlandia 3 years ago (worth only 70% ranking points at that). Senior B's have added 1019 ranking points to Voronov's rank, whereas Fernandez has only 142 points.

Voronov is ranked in the top 10 of the world because he's doing something right... but he isn't 2nd ranked in the World because he is "doing something right", it's because he's doing more competitions (similar to Caroline Wozniacki being a former tennis #1 for 67 weeks, and having never won a Grand Slam and only making it to 2 finals at that). That's not to say Voronov hasn't improved in order to get some well-earned results - he has improved a lot, and IMO he was underrated in the past (and jipped of an Olympic spot/medal thanks to Plushenko's "closed test skate"), but let's not pretend that his #2 World Ranking (or World Rankings in general) actually means anything significant.

Sandpiper said:

I know exactly why Kovtun got silver... I guess I'm just a COP-hater. And Judge-hater, in this particular event. The judges were really generous to mistakes and -GOE, which boosted Kovtun (who rotated everything messily) and did no favours to Voronov (who landed his stuff alright... but failed to rotate a crucial salchow). Not saying they were necessarily holding Kovtun up, since Javi got the same treatment... but I wish the judges would stop this.

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Couldn't agree more. And the main reason I am not keen on Kovtun is that he ALWAYS looks like he is not enjoying himself out there. He looks so serious and a little scared, and it detracts from the presentation. Whereas Voronov goes out there all guns blazing and is a joy to watch. Also, I happen to like Menshov as well, and would have welcomed his presence, especially as he is probably nearing the end of his competitive career.

CanadianSkaterGuy said:

People were going so far as to say Kovtun should have been behind Bychenko (LMAO)... It's painfully obvious how manic and desperate people are to have Kovtun finish off the podium... what, so they can sneer that "even Bychenko beat him". Pathetic.

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LMAO? Not funny at all. Bychenko skated his lights out with the minimum of errors - so powerful that you could feel it without even being there, whereas Kovtun was shaky in parts and, as usual, looked liked he was going to the executioner's block rather than going to skate his free. It's not a question of 'sneering' - it's giving credit where it is due.

I thought both guys from Israel gave great performances which were so refreshing. They both skated well and 'from the heart'. It is nice to see a country which doesn't usually figure come up in the rankings. Felt the same about Spain when Javier first showed what he could do.